Posts by Charles 9

Another likely reason for multiple rebooting may have to do with changing internal storage (perhaps encrypting or re-encrypting it), which would require at least one reboot to go into a maintenance mode so as to do it to the internal store in situ (in case there's not enough room to do it less-destructively) plus change the encrypted filesystem parameters to reflect this, then reboot into the new encrypted filesystem to continue the update.

Re: tin foil hats required

Which doesn't help too well if the text has strange formatting. Plus in order to do a plain text search, you need excerpts from the "forbidden publications" themselves, meaning the fuzz will be caught in an entrapment situation by holding excerpts of forbidden material themselves in order to search for more forbidden material.

Re: Non-cloudy thinking

"Yes, Amazon Kindle could just choose to block your access to books that you've already paid for.

If they wanted to wipe out all reputation, goodwill, trust and destroy their business overnight."

Didn't you read about the whole Nineteen Eighty-Four copies being wiped from Kindles without explanation? I know, ironic, but it actually happened (and as you can see, El Reg itself covered it).

Funny thing. Amazon's still kicking. Plus what if something permanent were to happen to Amazon? All reputation, goodwill, and trust would vanish if Amazon itself disappeared (and given the pace of technology, stranger things have happened, like the #2 bookseller in America suddenly up and closing).

Not if there's multiple keys and they need to check them one at a time, each one requiring a reboot.

Re: tin foil hats required

How does that help when people import their own e-books (not guaranteed to match any signatures)?

Re: OTA vs USB

Plus remember, some people with tablets and e-readers don't have computers.

Re: Non-cloudy thinking

"Yeah, I love having my precious collection all on a single point of failure."

Is it really that hard to keep your book collection in two separate locations so that one's ready in case the other fails? I do that for my multi-TB media collection using two hard drives, plus I use parity archiving to deal with bit rot.

Given 32GB MicroSDs can be hard pretty cheap these days, I don't see any problem with having two of them.

Many people have trouble remembering more than a few of those numbers at a time. That's why we keep directories. If we're forced to remember a long PIN, we're likely to forget something else.

Physical access can break ANYTHING open since they can just use side-channel attacks coming from things like EMR to deduce whatever secret is needed. Worst comes to worst, they can decap the chip physically (defeating any booby-traps along the way). That's why they say that physical access = Game Over.

Re: FBI presumably salivating

But it should let the cat out of the bag. Apple could point to that and very clearly say they don't need to be involved. Use that exploit since THEY'RE a state-level agency. The court obviously can't order to Apple to do something unless there's no alternative, which this exploit clearly presents.

Re: No sale

There are people who dispute that article. After all, there's the matter of the "Microsoft Tax," the discount Microsoft will ONLY apply if the reseller sells Windows AND ONLY Windows on their machines (and yes, this takes the volume license into consideration, they reduce the baseline price per laptop). I think the only reason Dell dares is because of counteroffers from the likes of Ubuntu allowing them to save either way.

No, because they're designed to remove unwanted third-party programs. GWX is an unwanted first-party program (because it's made by the same company that makes the OS).

Re: Windows 10?

OK, what headline games DO you play on Linux that work either natively on on WINE with little or no configuration, with little to no loss in performance vs. the Windows version? I can tell you Fallout 4 won't run natively, as Bethesda has gone on record against porting to Linux, citing conflicting environments and targets. I can also speak from firsthand experience that Valve's own Linux ports rarely match the Windows versions in real-world performance. I've tried, I've honestly tried, but Linux hasn't really work for me yet.

Re: Windows 10?

GAMERS for one due to the fact that most games are Windows-only and WINE-unfriendly, not to mention the upcoming DX12 games that require 10 and won't be ported for Vulkan (ask Bethesda why Fallout 4 won't be making the jump).

Re: Finally had enough...

What about the games? Those require close-to-metal performance and I recall most VMs don't virtualize graphics hardware very well, especially cutting edge games that use DX11 and eventually 12? And there have been companies that have been recorded as saying they won't develop on Linux (like Bethesda Softworks who make the Fallout series now).

Much as I'd love to switch to Linux, the Linux Steam collection is a pale imitation of the Windows one and there are no signs of this improving anytime soon.

Re: If ...

They can still do it. All they would need is a cover story to keep the NSA's involvement out of it. Maybe the official who changed the password remembered it and the old one, allowing them to change it back and get an iCloud backup done, for example.

The Casio watch and the Sure deodorant isn't going to make much sense. Toyota might have an issue, though, if they're seen as a vehicle of choice for anarchists since that'll paint them in a negative image (so do pseudo-realistic racing games showing them as crash-prone). It may be a strictly image thing, but image sells which means image affects the bottom line.

Re: I don't get it

They probably figure if an ad plays out, you at least tolerate it; otherwise, you'd change channels for the duration.

But as people find roads blocked, they look for people taking detours and follow them, too. I wouldn't be too surprised if people start noticing and following you.

Re: Government by the people

You do know police and fire vehicles are also government vehicles (medical depends; some are, some aren't).

Re: More Cars than Roads

You forget TOLL roads, which IINM DO turn a profit or the companies that run them wouldn't still be doing this line of work.

Re: More Cars than Roads

No one wants to foot the massive bill for such an undertaking. Besides,California ALONE is larger than several European countries.

Please name me ONE mass transit system that actually turns an honest profit. Or is there another reason private enterprise doesn't step in?

Re: More recently

"The problem here is that to be usable and secure it doesn't have to be beyond current medical science. It has to be beyond medical science forever"

No, it only has to be beyond medical science until technology marches on and we develop a new authentication method and start switching to it, making the old stuff stale.

"Basing security on something that cannot be changed at the drop of a hat is insanity with gilt knobs on."

EXCEPT it's the ONLY thing that's practically guaranteed to be present all the time regardless of circumstances. People may have bad memories and may not carry a second factor with them. That's important because these kinds of people still need to be screened.

PS. And believe me, I have lost count of the number of people who go about their business without their ID cards or keys (and then start begging because of that lack).

Re: More recently

Well, you have EIGHT of them (plus your thumbs). Plus how do you go about reproducing a vein pattern that relies on having particular qualities of mass and so on in place as well. I would think the technology to create an artificial finger right down to the veins and bones is something beyond current medical science.

The thing about biometrics is that thery're basically the ONLY authentication system that's ALWAYS on you, regardless of whether or not you have electronic accessories and/or a good memory (basic requirements for the two other branches of authentication).

Re: Tiresome..

But some people have terrible memories for passwords. They couldn't even remember "correcthorsebatterystaple" to save their lives (meaning they can't recall something they KNOW). Plus they may be partial Luddites and against having an electronic device on their person (so there's nothing they HAVE). So how do you do security when the ONLY thing you can work with is something you ARE?

Re: Cunning plan...

I thought the cut that to $3 off these days. Any, don't be surprised if anyone tried to seriously interfere with it, it would phone home to report this, have cameras to record it, and maybe even emit a loud noise to drive the interlopers away and draw police attention.

Re: Since when a recipe is speech?

No, free press if printed. All they would have to do is publish the source code in a magazine or newspaper and the First Amendment would apply. Unless, of course, they cite national security "clear and present danger" concerns to trump the First Amendment.

Re: misinformed arrogance

Not if it meant it ALSO opened the way to open every other safe made by that manufacturer...including ones potentially held by the government itself.

The thing with a safe is that even physical cracking takes time, which is why they're rated that way (in terms of how long it would take a professional safecracker, with no limits on his tools of the trade, to get it open). That's basically like brute forcing the phone's memory, which by modern standards has a safecracker rating of "practically infinite". Thing is, what if the safe company is forced to develop something that exploits a design flaw in their line of safes to cut the safecracker rate all the way down to "5 minutes"? That's more like what the feds are asking, and I don't think any safe company would want to play ball with that, given the negative reputation it would bring (much like how car manufacturers are a little leery about their brands being in racing games, particularly those noted for reasonably accurate physics; it might bring out a crash characteristic that might affect sales in the showroom).

Re: misinformed arrogance

"What I have a problem with, or at least the first, is what happens to the engineers if they step back and refuse to provide what the FBI is demanding?"

If supported by a court order, that can become contempt of court, similar to the one local officer who refused to issue marriage licenses of any kind (to avoid discrimination charges) on account of religious objections to signing marriage licenses for gay couples (and they couldn't force him out of office because the post was elected and the only body that can impeach an elected official, the state legislature, was out of session).

Re: @DonL

"No man, no matter how virtuous, blessed by god, blood of kings - whatever - NO man is above the law."

Impossible. Eventually, someone amasses the kind of power that allows him to go beyond the law, on pain of pain and destruction. Such is the game of humanity; it's basic "me vs. the other guy" instinct. After all, in the final analysis, law is just "ink on a page" and absolutely worthless without the power to make others submit to it, even when they disagree with it.

Re: disgrunted owner of an original Nexus 7

There's also the matter that rooting isn't as handy as it was, given that Android and apps are increasingly root-aware, especially in Marshmallow. I had to unroot my S4 because of root-aware apps.

Re: Where were the opposition?

"The problem is most MPs and parties have been brainwashed to believe that something is required or the country will fall apart."

And they may well have reason to believe this. Wasn't there significant outcry after the July 7 attacks? If another one occurs and the people get the impression the government isn't doing enough to protect them (even in the event nothing could've been done by the government could've prevented it), there could be some very uncomfortable questions, especially at the polls.

In the old DOS days the MD/MKDIR and CD/CHDIR commands were interchangeable, though in your case, I think the batch file went:

:LOOP

MD <name>

CD <name>

GOTO LOOP

Re: designed to slurp less power..

"I seem to remember there used to be 1.8" drives in small netbooks, maybe that can make an even smaller form factor case for the PI"

Actually, those 1.8" jobbers were first built for PMPs like iPods before they went solid state.